Chauncey Billups was back in the lineup for The Pistons Sunday, but his presence wasn’t enough to beat The Kings. The Pistons were dominant in the first half but it went downhill as soon as the third quarter started. The Kings erased the Pistons lead by going on a 15-1 run in the third quarter. The game was close, but missed free throws and 38% shooting in the second half doomed Detroit in their 105-95 loss to the Kings, making them 2-and-3 on the yearly trip out west.
Key Points:
- If you just watched the first half of the ball game you would have thought this game was going to be an easy W by the way The Pistons were playing. They led the game 58-52 at the half shooting a ridiculous 61% from the floor.
- Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton shot a combined 10-for-27.
- Jason Maxiell, who got the starting job again in place of the still injured Antonio McDyess, got into early foul trouble. He played just 16 minutes, scoring 5 with 2 rebounds, eventually fouling out of the ball game.
- Surprisingly Nazr Mohammed played some key minutes going 2-for-2 from the floor with 4 rebounds and a blocked shot. He was however 0-for-4 from the line, but he wasn’t the only one missing at the charity stripe.
- The Pistons shot a horrible 57% from the line for the game.
- Jarvis Hayes scored all of his 10 points in the second quarter. A great pass from Sheed down low led to this aggressive jam.
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- The Pistons contained Kevin Martin, who is averaging 28 points per game, but they let Beno Udrih of all people dominate. Udrih led the Kings with a season high 23 points and seemed to get whatever he wanted. The Pistons always seem to let role players take advantage of them.
- Rasheed picked up his first tech of the season with minutes left in the game. Pistons assistant coach Dave Cowens was also assessed a tech shortly there after, which led to two made free throws by the Kings when the game was on the line. Not something you like to see when the game is on the line.
- Cheikh Samb played just five minutes, but there may be a possibility that he stays with the Pistons longer than we anticipated.
- Chauncey Billups, who scored 14 with 9 assists a blocked shot and a takeaway finished the first quarter with a nice fall away make at the buzzer.
- Rasheed was the difference maker in the fourth quarter, in fact our man Special K wanted to make sure the Pistons went back to him when they needed buckets late in the game professing there is a “Need for Sheed”. He finished the game with 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting with 12 boards, a blocked shot, 2 assists and a takeaway. Brad Miller couldn’t handle him down low. As a matter of fact nobody could.
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- Five Pistons in double figures.
- Rebound war lost 32-39.
- Not trying to sound harsh, but Rip needs to stop forcing shots. And what happened to his free throw shooting, he’s just 73% from the line so far this season.
- Antonio McDyess should be back for Wednesday’s game against the Knicks.
- Most Pistons fans didn’t like the officiating towards the end of the game. Neither did Rasheed. “We shot ourselves in the foot,” said Rasheed Wallace. “We let them hang around, and then they had help from the magic trio.”
- Tayshaun was solid, in fact he was the primary scorer in the first quarter. He led the Pistons with 19 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, a block, assist and a steal.
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- Tayshaun Prince in the Fox Sports Spotlight.
- The Pistons need to get back to playing defense, the are giving up way too many points. Remember when they used to hold opponents to double digits. Please put the D back in Detroit….. I am begging you!
- Afflalo has had an impressive start to the season, he really knows what he needs to do when he’s on the floor.
- The Pistons, who started their season off with 8 of their first 10 on the road, have got to be happy to return home.
I wish someone knew what was going on with Rip.
This is the 3rd game where pistons insider( Mlive) has put Rip on the dud list…
Should I start to worry yet?
I want him to be irreplaceable.
Is he right now? You tell me.
I hope they get themselves together so we can go on a winning streak at home. I was also hoping for a W when I read your summary 🙁
RIP hasn’t been playing like himslef lately. I hope he is ok. It is very frustrating to see my boys lose to the Kings of all teams.
Rip will get himself together. I have no doubt about it. Here’s to a successful home game winning streak!
let’s trade Rip and get Kobe!
the pistons are not going to be the powerhouse they used to be.. we are all going to have to get used to not being being spoiled with a good basketball team… they have gotten progressively worse since 04 and we will have to settle for a team that hasnt improved and has gotten beaten by worse and worse opponents in the playoffs… we need a shake up or we are in for some serious trouble..
ps. amir is not very good and has gotten 3 second violations the only time ive seen him on the floor… the more the season goes by the more i realize how much we over payed a player who has proved nothing… i know you are half way up his butt and think his shit dont stank natalie but he really isnt impressive unless its d league play, just somethin to think about..
-jp
Play defense, play defense, play defense.
I’m most displeased with Flip Saunders… some very odd rotations and jesus he just does not know when to call a damn timeout… How can you possibly let those huge runs happen?
I agree… Im putting a ton of this on the coach.
You basically have a whole team of above average players and no superstars. If Nazr & Flip are playing hot at the end of the game, leave them in. Dont think you have to play Tayshaun, Rip, Cbill & Sheed just because they are you starters.. And please use your timeouts to stop the runs. Oh, and quit acting like you threw up inside your mouth every 2 min.
It’s not like he knows what to do when he calls a timeout.
I sincerely hope the Pistons haven’t forgotten what got us to the championship 4 years ago, (It seems so much longer than that doesn’t it?). The Pistons won those games by playing:
1. DEFENSE!!!!!!!! It’s number 1 for a reason! We have to learn to play defense ALL 4 QUARTERS again, and not only individual defense, we have to help out someone who gets beat by picking up the player who gut past, not jst try to block the shot of the guy that just past our defender
2. TEAM BALL!!!! I loved it when the Pistons won the ‘ship everybody said this was the new way to win championships, team ball without any one person scoring most of the points, we still play team ball, but at times we are forcing shots. Rip stop trying to force shots when there is still plenty of time on the clock to set up a play, it’s not just Rip but he’s probably the most obvious one Wat ever happened to those great curls off picks that we used to see almost every play rather than only 5 times a quarter like now?
3. FOR A GOOD COACH!!! I’m sorry but I just don’t think Saunders is an adequate coach for the Pistons, he has a great offensive mind but it jsut doesn’t fit with the Pistons system IMO, I saw an FSN show about the Pistons practice session two years ago during the ECFs and it said that Flip was practicing solely offensive drills during the ENTIRE practice, I don’t agree with this decision at all we need a coach who has a defensive mind
I agree that am not happy about Flip, but how many times can I complain ab out him. I was calling timeouts myself last night .
Why is everyone on rips offense when Tayshaun’s, Rasheed’s (heck everyones) d is so bad. I think Tayshaun especially has abandoned his defense so he can shoot a bunch of jump shots on the other side ( someone please count up how many blocks he’s had this year, let alone a block on a fast break which he is known for.) Anouncers say “he Tayshauned that guy” when someone else does it but yet TAyshaun hasn’t had one of those blocks since like the beginning of last year.
What’s wrong with Sheed, I got concerned in LA when he 1. had a wide open path to the basket and instead of dunking hardly even jumped to lay it in. 2. When he fouled Jordan Farmar on the break rather than block his stuff into the 3rd row. Does anyone know if he’s hurt or is he just unhappy with the team?
That tech on Sheed was bull, does anyone know if they’re going to recind it?
Love Cheick Samb
Amir is young. People tend to forget he’s twenty. If he was playing in his second year of college, he’d be a dominant player. I’m patiently waiting for him to come along. I suspect the Spurs noticed the same thing, since they made a competetive bid for his services.
I think many of us agree that Saunders is a problem. I don’t like his complex offensive plays (especially since they rarely have alternatives when the plays break down) and *hate* his rotations.
The questionable defense is, in part, due to the way they’ve seen fouls called. I think we, as fans, can clamor for defense, but you will be wondering why the starters are sitting fouled out at the half if they tried to play the pressure defense they displayed in ’04.
I think the ambition of the young guys is pretty important for the mix. The core is getting very jaded. I understand some of the reasons, but you don’t want a bitter team of players to cheer for. Stuckey, Afflalo, Max, Amir, Samb… these guys are hungry for play time. I’d rather see them make mistakes than the veterans looking miserable and lamenting every call.
We are missing the defense. Flip Saunders does need to learn when to call a time out and how to handle his rotations better. I understand the rotation becomes a little more difficult to handle when we have injuries but even when everyone is healthy Flip can’t figure it out. He blew it in the playoffs and he continues to blow it now. my biggest question is this:
why when something is working well for us do we stop doing it? Like when Sheed is unstoppable down low, or Jarvis Hayes is scoring bucket after bucket, or the zone defense, etc…. when something is working why don’t we just keep the hammer down until the other team puts a stop to it? I have seen it time and time again(not just this season either) and I can’t figure out why we don’t just stick with what is working until the other team finds an answer for it and then make a change if we have to. Can anyone explain this to me?
Sorry guys but this one is the players fault. No matter what Flip does he can’t help these guys. It really makes me sad that the team I’ve loved since a little girl is starting to make me think about why there my favorite team. These boys are getting worse as the season’s come and go. It’s sad when a team with so much talent ends up with the same disappointing outcome each year.No matter if the Pistons go on a 20 game win streak they need work if they ever want to bring a championship back to Detroit. As a big Piston fan I don’t think we will be seeing a banner for a while.
lol A lot of your guys’ comments are enough to send a person into a minor depression.
I’m an optimist by nature so I tend to focus more on the positive things about the road trip and hope the disappointment echoed in the post-game comments of the players and coaches will bring about some changes.
Here’s to 2 days off for our boys and to better basketball starting Wednesday. CHEERS!
P.S. I’m going to start making a list of all the people who doubt the Pistons ability to make it back to the Finals and when Detroit wins the ‘ship, I’m going to track you all down and bitch slap you. LOL Come on, guys, these are the Pistons! Disappointment isn’t supposed to be evident until the end of May/early June. haha Just playing…
jp why are you so negative? maybe if you watch amir more you would see how good he can be. Also, the pistons are still the team to beat in the east. they just need to playbetter day in and day out. No need to worry bout them.
Go Pistons!
JP, your post is rediculous. Firstly, watch your language when you’re addressing a lady, especially on her own blog where she volunteers her time and gives her enthusiasm to bring YOU a blog as high-quality as this one.
Amir is a high-potential player, and he is only 20 years old. Stop expecting him to be Lebron, or Kobe. He’s not- and I much prefer him the way he is- just a kid fighting for minutes and doing the best he can.
the Pistons went 2-3 on their road trip. So? 2 of those games they were missing their all-star PG AND their all-star PF, and in the final game they were still missing the latter.
Furthermore, Stuckey’s hand injury has really hurt the Pistons rotation this year. They planned on having a qualified young PG to gome in off the bench behind CB, with Afflalo coming off the Bench behind Rip, with very little mention of the turnover-prone Flip Murray. Instead, the 3 injuries that the Pistons have suffered have really thrown that rotation out of wack. How about we wait until the whole team is assembled and has some time to play together before we hit the panic button and start doubting their abilities?
About Flip, He has been so excited about these new kids..maybe some where in that messed up head of his he felt like the pistons lost games(ships) because of the way they(Lbrown etc) had been coached.
He is going total Flip…God help us all…these new guys are young enough and wanting it so much, they will do what ever he wants. He is breaking down the style the Pistions were… and are never going to be again…
Change is sometimes good…But i think this is a big mistake on Flips part.
I see no reason for all this depressing talk this early in the season. Yeah, we all know Saunders has his issues but it looks like we are kinda stuck with him at this point. This team doesn’t have it together right now (at least they are not playing up to their capabilities yet) but it’s early and we have had a few injuries that have thrown things off a bit… I think everyone keeps forgetting that. I am not giving up on this team yet (or ever really) because I am a fan through thick & thin. There are plenty of things to complain about. Plenty of reasons I don’t really like what I am seeing right now, but there have been some things I do like and plenty of reasons to be excited about what is going to happen when this team gets healthy and starts to gel a little more. Ain’t no doubt some things are out of kilter with the boys, but we should stick by them and show them our support. I think we are being a little too demanding of a team that had a shitty schedule and some tough luck injuries to start the season off. I am guilty of it myself I have to admit. I am going to lighten up a little… they are going to be fine. They will be in the playoffs and they will do well. I am not going to say they will win it all this time around but we all know they have the talent to do so. Even if they don’t win the ‘ship, I will be right here cheering them on next season.
GO PISTONS!!!!
Richie you are a tool. All jp said was the truth. Amir hasnt dont anything lately and hasnt done anything his entire carrer and he gets a 20 million dollar contract. this is the problem with people comming out of highschool. you have to wait around for 5 or 6 years before they reach all of there potential. Hes not good right now and hes still another 3 yeras away from being ready to contribute 20 minutes a game.
Considering Sacramento’s roster, that might be one of the worst Piston losses in recent memory
Thanks for the link to that Tayshaun/Fox Sports piece.
Anon 2:29,
What right do you have to call me imature names on a blog for defending a player who is doing his best? Joe Dumars knows a heck of a lot more about potential than any of us, and I don’t think it’s our place to chastise Amir when he hasn’t had a chance to prove himself yet. He plays productively whenever he gets time, and we can’t cricize him for not being Lebron.